Trudeau government plans to make it easier to invoke Emergencies Act, freeze bank accounts

Canada's highly controversial use of the Emergencies Act during last winter's anti-Covid restrictions civil protest known as the “Freedom Convoy,” and criticism heaped on the authorities thereafter, does not appear to have persuaded them to act differently in the future.

The whole affair did result in the setting up of a body, the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC), whose task was to investigate how the Act was used during the trucker-led peaceful protest of February 2022. Another job the commission was given was to advise on (future) policy.

However, POEC Commissioner Justice Paul Rouleau announced recently that the use of the Act was justified, branding the protest an actual national security emergency that required the measures taken to squash it.